The Seven Deadly Sins Part 3: Envy
Scripture: Genesis 4:1-8; Mark 7:20-23; Luke 6:45; 1 John 3:11-13;
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Introduction:
There was a man who had a brother whom it appeared that he loved. One day both brothers brought a gift, something that each of them had made as a gift to their father. The older brother’s gift was presented but was rejected by his father. When his younger brother presented his gift, he watched as his father accepted his gift and praised him for such a thoughtful gift. When he saw his younger brother being praised, he became angry. His father saw his anger and explained to the elder son that although he had made a mistake in what he chose to give, it was okay as long as next time he did it right. This apparently did not make him feel much better or caused his anger to cease. Every time he looked at his younger brother, the anger was still present. Finally his anger became so great that he killed his brother.
As you wonder if this story is true or if you could ever be so angry at a loved one let me tell you that this story is true. In this story, the older brother’s anger grew out of his being envious of the praise that his father gave to his younger brother. Envy is the third of the Seven Deadly Sins. Envy is defined as “discontent and ill will over another’s advantages, possessions, etc. A desire to have something someone else has.” “Love is patient, love is kind….” Love actively seeks the good of others for their sake. Envy resents the good others receive or even might receive. Envy is almost indistinguishable from pride at times. In the true story that I shared with you, the root cause of the older brother’s anger was envy. When he saw that his father accepted his younger brother’s gift and praised him, he became envious because he wanted the praise that his brother was receiving. When he did not receive it, it resulted in him becoming angry. Consider what would have happened if he too had received praise or if he had received the praise and his brother was the one who has messed up? The outcome would have been totally different. Envy is a sin that carries others with it (anger, jealousy, rivalry) which can result in one doing something in the heat of a moment that under normal circumstances they would not do. The story that I told you is based on the story of Cain and Abel as found in Genesis 4:1-15. There is also another story in Genesis chapter 37 about envy. I will not go into it in this message, but it is the story of Joseph and his brothers. Remember how they hated him (envy in action) and subsequently sold him into slavery? This is not something that we can think and fantasize about not happening to us; this is a very real tool that Satan uses daily to hinder our growth as Christians.
This morning I will identify what envy looks like and discuss some ways that we can battle this within our own lives.
I. Envy – The Perverted Love
Envy (as is pride) is a sin of “perverted love”. Envy is perverted because it “loves” what other people possess, rather than what is good, beautiful and true. It is often portrayed as “eating away” the heart of the envious person.
As you know, I had two older brothers and two younger sisters living in the house with me when I was a child. My older brother Delrick, who is right next to me in age, could draw really well. He would spend hours writing and drawing realistic cartoon figures complete with a story line. My mother (as well as others) would praise him for his artistic abilities. Well naturally being the poster child for pride back then, I wanted some of this praise too and one day I had the opportunity to get some. My mother had taken Delrick and I to work with her. At that time she worked at for a Headstart program. One day she asked Delrick to draw and paint a mural of Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall. She showed him the picture of what she wanted and the wall she wanted him to paint it on. She asked Delrick because he had artistic abilities. She did not ask me because she knew that I did not have artistic abilities. I was so bad at drawing that I could not make stick figures look right. However, in my mind, I was as good as Delrick and I was on this day going to get me some praise.
Delrick began drawing the mural and it was looking good. When he got to the feet, I asked him if I could draw the feet. Now what happens next is completely the fault of my brother Delrick. I can honestly attest to the fact that I was innocent in all of this. Why? Because Delrick knew that I could not draw, he knew it was his responsibility because he was the one who was asked to do it and he was older so he knew better. He gave me the pen and I began to draw the shoes. I thought I was doing something wonderful until my mother came out in the hall, saw what I drew and blew a gasket. Now you must remember, I was about 10 years old at the time and in my mind the shoes looked good. I do not know what my mother saw compared to what I saw. I saw shoes comparable to what my brother would draw. My mother saw Humpty Dumpty with one shoe that looked like what Bozo the Clown would wear and one shoe that looked liked a high heel that a woman would wear. I wanted to explain to her that she was looking at it wrong. That she needed to use her “creative eye” and look at it from different angles, but I did not get the chance. She pulled me away from the wall and told me not to even think about touching it again. Now to make matters worse, she made Delrick remove what I had spent so much time drawing and re-draw it. In my mind, mine looked better – more creative. The shoes Delrick drew looked the same, were comparable in size and looked normal. There is no creative value in drawing something that looked normal – but my mother was pleased. Once again, although I came so close to proving that I was just as good, that my talents were equal to my brother’s, I learned another lesson. After that my mother never asked me to draw anything for her again and I never offered.
The point of this story is that I was very envious of my brother gift for drawing. Not envious enough to hurt him, but envious enough to imagine myself ripping apart something that he had created and was getting praise for. Envy wants what others have and will not be content until it receives it. Envy is more that just coveting something that belongs to someone else. You actually love what someone else has so much that you actually have ill will towards that person. You want to see something bad happen to them so you can get what they possess. Just as love originates in the hearts of men, so does envy. Jesus made the following observation when He was questioned about things entering a man’s body and making him unclean (defiled).
Mark 7:20-23 “….That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Envy originates within our hearts and therefore it is not something that happens “to us” but something that “comes from us”. Because it comes from us, we are in the best position to exercise control and discipline over it to keep from sinning against God. Look at Matthew 27:18 that says in reference to Jesus “For He knew that because of envy they had handed Him over.” The chief priests were very envious of Jesus on several levels. First He claimed to be the Son of God and really had proof that He was. He performed miracles that none of them had ever seen or been able to perform in their lifetime. He did not put on a show for the people in order to make a name for Himself and he related to the common people, something they did not do. They were so envious of Him that they made the decision early in his ministry that they must find a way to kill Him. If you remember, they wanted to kill Lazarus also after he was raised from the dead because he was a living testimony of Jesus. Even though our envy may not lead us to kill someone, the thought of the sin is sin in and of itself. Consider the following scripture:
Matthew 5:28 “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Luke 6:45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
These verses stress the importance that we understand that whatever is within our hearts help to define who we are – regardless of what the outside world sees. What is in your heart defines you to God. You may never act on your thoughts and desires, but from a spiritual standpoint, those thoughts and desires defines the real you. That is why Paul says in Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” When we are saved, our minds still function as they did when we were living in sin. It Is only after we are saved are we able through the Spirit of God to begin the process of renewing our minds. Getting rid of the garbage and replacing it with God’s word and His love.
Envy perverts the love that is within us. Through envy, as we have discussed, we desire, long for and love something that belongs to someone else. It could be a love for their gifts or talents, possessions, spouse, kids, etc. Nothing is exempt. All of us have heard stories or know of situations where someone took something from someone else because they wanted it so badly. There have been times when people have killed someone because they could not have them and therefore did not want someone else to have them. Remember the situation that Solomon faced when he first became king? Two harlots came before him claiming that a newborn baby belonged to both of them (1 Kings 3:16-28). Both had recently given birth to sons and one of them by accident had smothered her son. The one whose son was now dead took her dead son and switched it with the other woman’s son. When the other woman woke up and realized what had happened, she tried to get her son back. To resolve the conflict, since no one knew whose was the mother of the baby, they went before Solomon for a resolution. After Solomon heard their stories, he told one of his servants to bring a sword to cut the living baby in two and give each woman a half. The woman whose baby it was cried out and asked that the baby’s life be spared and that the baby should be given to the other woman. Now here is where it gets really interesting. The other woman, who you’d think would accept the baby and be happy that she’d won, told Solomon to go ahead and divide the baby so that neither of them would have the child. This was the proof that Solomon needed to identify who was the true mother of the baby.
This woman action was motivated by envy. If you remember what she did – first she switched babies. Next, when standing before Solomon she confessed that the child was hers, even though she did not want the child. Finally she was very happy to have the baby split in two so that neither she nor the baby’s mother would have a son. Her envy took shape in the form of taking what her roommate had because she had lost what she had. She did not want her roommate to have something she no longer had. The other point is that she went farther than just experiencing jealousy, she had ill will towards her roommate and actually acted on her desires. Any love or affection that her roommate held for her was lost after this interaction.
Envy perverts the love that is within us and we must learn how to deal with it. How do we keep ourselves in check when we have desires that may not be met? How do we maintain our focus and faith in God when it seems that those who love Him the less end up with the most? How can we consistently be in the presence of those who have much more than we do and not feel like there is something wrong with us because we have less? How do we stop the envy before it ever has a chance to spring to life within us? The answer is love.
II. Destroying Envy Through Perfecting Love
If envy is a form of perverted love, the only way to truly deal with it is through perfecting the love that is within us. Let me explain with this scriptural reference that pertains to the first story I told you about of Cain and Abel.
1 John 3:11-13 “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.”
When John spoke of us loving each other, he makes the statement that we should not love each other as Cain did. Cain’s love for his brother was perverted and was demonstrated in his actions when he killed him. Cain wanted something that Abel had and it angered him that he did not have it. That anger turned to an action that caused him to kill his brother. His love for his brother turned cold as his love for what his brother had grew.
The only way we can deal with envy is to perfect love – in our actions daily. Here are the actions of love as stated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into an account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails….”
Every time that I read through this listing of what perfected love involves, I realize how much work I still have yet to do. If you examine the emotions/feelings related to envy, you can see that only perfected love can enable you to overcome it. Remember envy in and of itself is love, but perverted love. To conquer envy, you must establish your heart and set your focus on understanding and perfecting what God’s word says is love.
In all situation and circumstances, when dealing with all sorts of people, love is patient, kind and never jealous. No matter how successful you are or the possessions that you may own, love does not brag and is not arrogant – it never acts unbecomingly. When you have the opportunity to show off your talents, just remember that love does not seek its own. When you deal with people who you know does not have your best interest at heart, remember love is not easily provoked and does not take into account a wrong suffered. When you read the paper and/or hear something about someone that could be false, remember that love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but in the truth.
In everything that we do, if our actions, thoughts and intentions are filtered through God’s definition of love, we will do well. I pray God’s blessings upon you.
(One of the primary resources for this message was the “White Stone Journal” website. I used and expanded on several quotes from their articles. To them I give my thanks.)
